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2019: WE NEED A TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION Commission in the US now for the Adoption Programs that stole generations of children... Goldwater Institute's work to dismantle ICWA is another glaring attempt at cultural genocide.

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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Listen to the Elders: Lighting 8th Fire

According to their oral tradition, at the time of
this and other signs, the Hopi had a responsibility to seek out a House
of Mica (glass) that would stand on the far eastern shore of Turtle
Island -- a place where leaders from around the world would come to
discuss their problems. In 1948 the Hopi recognized the newly
constructed UN headquarters as the long-awaited House of Mica. Prophecy
instructed the Hopi that, when they found the great meeting house for
the leaders of the world, they should make four knocks on the door --
four attempts to speak there and to deliver a key message.

The House of Mica -
United Nations headquarters in New York City, with its distinctive
glass facade, which gleams like the mineral mica in the desert sunshine.
(UN Photo 104 713 SAW LWIN).

Over the years since 1948 the Hopi elders
came and knocked again and again at the door to the House of Mica, but
they were turned away.

Finally, a delegation of four Hopi elders
came to New York in 1993 for the Cry of the Earth conference -- what
amounted to a fourth and final knock at the door to the House of Mica.
The Hopi were accompanied by 24 other traditional elders from six other
Native American nations, including the four-person Algonquin delegation
headed by Grandfather Commanda.

Speaking at UN headquarters, the elders
delivered a unified and explicit warning that the time of purification
-- the era of withering fruit spoken of in their traditions -- is
already in progress, and likely to intensify. They presented their
understandings, handed down orally since antiquity, regarding the
ethical, ecological, and spiritual crises confronting humanity today.
Their messages fell on deaf ears.

When Grandfather Commanda gauged the lack of
understanding at the UN, he saw an urgent need to take the messages of
the elders directly to the people, and to fulfill the instructions set
out long ago by the Seventh Prophet. The experience at the UN set the
idea in his mind. It impelled him to sound the call for a prayer walk
that would "retrace the steps of the ancestors along the path of the
Sun," from East to West, to recover what had been lost long ago, as the
Seventh Prophet had said should happen.

Although UN officials and the media were
unmoved by the elders unified cry of warning in 1993, at least one
person heard the message. It changed the course of his life. Tom Dostou
is a man of mixed Wabanaki and Irish heritage. He had come to New York
that November in a rage. He was seeking guns and money to support an
incipient revolt against the Canadian government on a Mohawk
reservation. But he was stopped in his tracks by the elders.

Upon hearing their messages, Tom had what he
would later describe as an instant spiritual awakening. He forswore
anger and violence, and abandoned his search for weapons. He determined
instead to spearhead the prayer walk that Grandfather was calling for –
to retrace the footsteps of the ancestors. A forceful and charismatic
figure, Tom assumed the mantle of headman for the walk.

Plans for the pilgrimage began to take
shape. The walkers would start near the Eastern Door of Turtle Island --
in Massachusetts along the Atlantic Ocean -- and then retrace the
footsteps of the ancestors south and west, carrying the message of the
elders directly to the people.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

Nine months after the elders spoke at the
UN's House of Mica, something happened that intensified the sense of
urgency for the walk to get underway. A white buffalo calf was born.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

"I ask you to listen not just
with your minds. I ask you to listen with your hearts, because that is
the only way you can receive what it is -- what we are giving. These are
the teachings of our hearts.

"This walk is going to take
eight or nine months. There are lots of elders out there across Turtle
Island, and they have many beautiful teachings, many teachings that all
the people need now. It is our hope, it is our prayer that they will
come forward now that the Eastern Door is open

"It is our prayer that they will meet us as
we walk; that they will teach and share what they understand from their
hearts. Be patient. Listen to the elders. You need patience to receive
these teachings. It doesn't all come at once. You need patience."

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Please support NARF

Indian Country is under attack. Native tribes and people are fighting hard for justice. There is need for legal assistance across Indian Country, and NARF is doing as much as we can. With your help, we have fought for 48 years and we continue to fight.

It is hard to understand the extent of the attacks on Indian Country. We are sending a short series of emails this month with a few examples of attacks that are happening across Indian Country and how we are standing firm for justice.

Today, we look at recent effort to undo laws put in place to protect Native American children and families. All children deserve to be raised by loving families and communities. In the 1970s, Congress realized that state agencies and courts were disproportionately removing American Indian and Alaska Native children from their families. Often these devastating removals were due to an inability or unwillingness to understand Native cultures, where family is defined broadly and raising children is a shared responsibility. To stop these destructive practices, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

After forty years, ICWA has proven to be largely successful and many states have passed their own ICWAs. This success, however, is now being challenged by large, well-financed opponents who are actively and aggressively seeking to undermine ICWA’s protections for Native children. We are seeing lawsuits across the United States that challenge ICWA’s protections. NARF is working with partners to defend the rights of Native children and families.

where were you adopted?

To Veronica Brown

Veronica, we adult adoptees are thinking of you today and every day. We will be here when you need us. Your journey in the adopted life has begun, nothing can revoke that now, the damage cannot be undone. Be courageous, you have what no adoptee before you has had; a strong group of adult adoptees who know your story, who are behind you and will always be so.

Join!

National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network (NISCWN)

Membership Application Form

The Network is open to all Indigenous and Foster Care Survivors any time.

ADOPTION TRUTH

As the single largest unregulated industry in the United States, adoption is viewed as a benevolent action that results in the formation of “forever families.” The truth is that it is a very lucrative business with a known sales pitch. With profits last estimated at over $1.44 billion dollars a year, mothers who consider adoption for their babies need to be very aware that all of this promotion clouds the facts and only though independent research can they get an accurate account of what life might be like for both them and their child after signing the adoption paperwork.

This has happened to many, many Native children! We must protect ICWA and enforce it so that it stops! Even non-Native families that are not racist cannot provide a Native child with cultural knowledge and belonging. Only their tribes can do that. #ProudtoProtectICWAhttps://t.co/oA1e5kiK4k

A4: Twenty-one states filed an amicus brief in this case in support of #ICWA. These states, which are home to over 70 percent of tribal nations, know that ICWA helps them better serve Native children and families.#ProudtoProtectICWA

TWO WORLDS Book 1 (second edition)

Two Worlds anthology (Vol. 1)

“…sometimes shocking, often an emotional read…this book is for individuals interested in the culture and history of the Native American Indian, but also on the reading lists of universities offering ethnic/culture/Native studies.”

“Well-researched and obviously a subject close to the heart of the authors/compilers, I found the extent of what can only be described as ‘child-snatching’ from the Native Americans quite staggering. It’s not something I was aware of before…”

“The individual pieces are open and honest and give a good insight into the turmoil of dislocation from family and tribe… I think it does have value and a story to tell. I was affected by the stories I read, and amazed by the facts presented…. because it is saying something new, interesting and often astonishing.”

Did you know?

Good words

I agree with you on the caring of “orphans” – true orphans, not “paper orphans” as Kathryn Joyce describes in her book, The Child Catchers. The most important thing to remember, however, is that the orphan’s original identity and family connection and heritage must remain intact and available to him or her forever. This business of adoption – and I do mean the multi-billion-dollar, unregulated business of adoption – of wiping out the child’s original identity, falsifying birth records with the adopters’ names, altering facts such as place of birth, severing familial kinship, must stop … Immediately. And the outrageous injustices foisted upon adoptees and their families for the past 100 years must be addressed and righted. We are faced today with six to seven million people who were basically legally kidnapped, sold to the highest bidder, their identities falsified, and placed in a lifelong, imposed witness protection program for which there is no legal recourse. Then told by church officials, agency and government functionaries that they have no right to know who they are, to do genealogy or learn about important family medical history, or know the identity of or associate with blood relatives. This is how the Judeo-Christian society has interpreted “caring for orphans”, for it’s own selfish interests and greed. Starting with Georgia Tann, the woman charged with kidnapping and selling 5,000 children, most of whom were given to the rich and powerful who then colluded with her to “seal” adoptions and cover their nefarious activities (see, for example, Gov. Herbert Lehman, NY, 1935).

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